When I meet with a client face-to-face, I tend to write notes using pen and paper. When I’m sat at my computer, I usually take notes using my keyboard. But what does the science say about the effectiveness of pen and paper versus keyboard and screen?

Researcher Audrey van der Meer at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology has run several studies using electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment to scan the … Read more

Ask people what they want in life and they often say that they want to “be happy”. But why does happiness matter? And how can you achieve happiness?

1. Being happy may help you to be better at your job
Some people dismiss happiness as inconsequential. For example, I’ve heard a few managers say that they don’t really care whether their employees are happy so long as they are performing … Read more

How are you doing during the pandemic? A few months ago, I wrote about some behaviours that I have personally found useful in terms of maintaining my productivity and psychological wellbeing.

Here are some other things that I am personally finding helpful in terms of maintaining my mental wellbeing:

Work while standing up
Prior to the pandemic, I used to spend about an hour or couple of hours travelling – … Read more

The UK – like many other countries around the world – is currently in lockdown. As a psychologist, I’m used to working mainly face-to-face with people – coaching people one-on-one, running workshops for a dozen or so people, or giving conference presentations to hundreds of people at a time. Clearly, none of that is possible.

Here are some personal methods that I have found useful for staying productive and managing … Read more

What’s your strategy for having a productive day?

Unfortunately, a lot of ineffective people subscribe to the pinball method: allowing themselves to bounce from one task to the next, being diverted by requests and other interruptions as they come in, and generally being directed by other people’s whims. Clearly, that’s not a very productive way to get through life.

Instead, here are 5 research-backed methods for getting through your workload:… Read more

You’re busy. Of course you are. Who isn’t these days? The topic of productivity came up on several occasions with different individuals I’ve been coaching recently, so I thought I’d share a handful of tips and insights.

1. Batch your work (and life) tasks
During your working day, do you respond to emails as they come in? Or do you prefer to wait until you have a large number of … Read more

A large chunk of my work involves coaching leaders one-on-one or running workshops for small groups of leaders. Given the challenges they face, I have seen firsthand some of the more effective ways that some of the most successful leaders have transformed themselves and the performance of their teams. Here are 6 observations on what seems to work.

1. Prioritise relationships
Of course it’s the job of all managers to … Read more

Management writers often talk about the fact that we live in an increasingly VUCA world (which stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) and I think that few people would disagree with that. In this chaotic and every-changing world, one of the best things we can do to future-proof our careers is to keep learning.

So that may be about doing more reading or doing some of the excellent (and … Read more